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| President Moon Jae-in holds a virtual meeting with Franz-Werner Haas, the head of German biotech group CureVac, on COVID-19 vaccine partnership at a hotel in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday (local time). Yonhap |
President seeks vaccine partnership with German drugmaker CureVac
By Nam Hyun-woo, Joint Press Corps
President Moon Jae-in is expediting his bid to turn Korea into a global vaccine manufacturing hub by seeking to form a partnership with CureVac for the production of the German drug maker’s next-generation COVID-19 vaccine.
Moon, who is on a trip to Austria, had a videoconference with CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas, Tuesday (local time), and asked him to cooperate with Korean firms.
This follows Moon’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in the United Kingdom last week, where the two leaders shared their opinions on potential partnerships between German vaccine companies with messenger RNA (mRNA) technology and Korean vaccine contract manufacturers.
During the videoconference, Moon cited the meeting with Merkel and explained Korea’s bid to become a global vaccine production hub. According to Cheong Wa Dae, Haas agreed to look at Korea’s prowess in manufacturing vaccines and expressed support for Moon’s vaccine hub initiative.
Following the call, attention is on whether CureVac will sign contracts for the manufacture of its vaccine with Korean companies.
CureVac’s product, which is anticipated to be the world’s third mRNA vaccine, is in Phase 3 clinical trials ― the results are expected to be announced this summer.
The company claims its vaccine will be administered in much lower dose, improving cost-efficiency and making it easier to be combined with other vaccines against COVID-19 variants. It also has improved temperature stability for standard cold chain logistics, remaining stable when stored at a refrigerator temperature of five degrees Celsius.
Since the company is a startup, it is expanding its output capacity with manufacturing networks. The company says it will be able to supply up to 300 million doses in 2021. Since it has already signed an advanced purchase agreement for up to 405 million doses with the European Commission and plans to expand its supply further, it needs to expand its manufacturing capacity.
Against this backdrop, a number of Korean manufacturers are competing to win contracts from CureVac, with ST Pharm and Samsung Biologics being mentioned as the top contenders.
ST Pharm is gaining attention as it has lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based drug substance technology, which involves tiny lipid droplets that effectively deliver and protect the vaccine’s components, thus enabling the company to cover wider processes in vaccine manufacturing.
As it is the only Korean company having the technology, ST Pharm is also being mentioned as a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) for Moderna’s vaccine, while the company is studying the feasibility of raise its production capacity to 100 million doses.
Samsung Biologics is also interested in becoming a manufacturer for CureVac, as the company has recently added mRNA drug substance manufacturing to its portfolio. The company has already won a CMO order from Moderna.
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